Public Procurement in the Framework of Demand Side Innovation Policy: Theory and Examples of Practice

Today, the main determinant of a country' competitiveness and welfare is innovation. Recently, innovative public procurement has come to the forefront as a means of demand-side innovation policy. In this study demand-side innovation policies are examined theoretically and then addressed the EU supported innovative public procurement projects and some practices. We concluded that EU gives support mainly to pre-commercial procurement, while countries apply both pre-commercial and innovative public procurement. Action plan has been prepared to improve technology and domestic production via public procurement in our country in the framework of Tenth Development Plan. In this process, it is needed to consider the private sector's existing technology capacity and potential production of innovative solutions and installing the information network for innovative public procurement.